CHENNAI: The batch of 1952 of the College of Engineering, Guindy, and Government College of Technology, Coimbatore, enjoy a distinction of being the first batch of students to join the college after independence.
And when you meet them, you realise that they were part of a group that had a vision for India and literally built the infrastructure for most cities and towns in the post-colonial era. A group pf 32 alumni members got together and offered felicitation to the octogenarians including former vice-Chancellor of the university Dr M Anandakrishnan, who released a diamond jubilee directory of EGC-52.
The EGC’52 alumni association meet was a walk down the memory lane for the members, as they looked around the campus and recollected their student days. The most significant change: there were no female students in 1948, though medical colleges admitted female students. Several out-of-station members, who came to study in the biggest college in the then Madras Presidency, remember how there was only one bus that ambled along if you waited for over an hour and, hence, there was elaborate planning when the gang wanted to get out of the college.
P Ramasamy, a former PWD official, said to watch a film they had to go all the way to Mount Road, which happened once a week.
Their canteen was like an exhibition hall: order any item, it was only 10 paise. Not to forget, the yearly fee was a princely sum of Rs 216. The students were intensely aware that they were among the elite who actually managed to get into the reputed college by the fact that even before the college was over they would have the envelope from the government offering them their jobs.